A Regal Beagle Seizes the Spotlight

It took 20 minutes for David Merriam, the Best in Show judge at the Westminster Kennel Club Show on Tuesday, to give the dog-loving audience at Madison Square Garden a bit of a shock. After a devilishly long route to making up his mind — he seemed to enjoy building the suspense, smiling a bit impishly as he deliberated — he made the surprising choice of Miss P, a 15-inch beagle and the grandniece of Uno, the first beagle to ever win the big show, in 2008.

Merriam, a retired, white-haired California trial judge, ignored the crowd’s favorite, Swagger, an Old English sheepdog, and two other dogs who were believed to be likelier winners than the nearly 4-year-old Miss P: a Skye terrier named Charlie and a Portuguese water dog with the artistic sobriquet of Matisse. Merry Miss P was not the name on everybody’s snout.

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Miss P, who is retiring to motherhood, did not exhibit the palpable charm of Uno, who howled when he was judged.CreditAndrew Burton/Getty Images

Judges rarely, if ever, say why they vetoed other dogs in favor of the winner, and Merriam was no different. In the language of show dog judging, he said that Miss P “had wonderful type” and a “wonderful head” and that as he watched her move on the carpeted floor of the Garden, he said he could simultaneously see “the beagle in the ring and the beagle in the field.” That is, he detected, more than in Miss P’s rivals, the work that she was born to do, even if her main work is winning ribbons at dog shows.

Will Alexander, Miss P’s handler, looked exhausted after the victory. Miss P reclined in his arms, quietly, looking as if she had not worked at all.

“She’s hungry and I’m overwhelmed,” he said at a news conference.

Looking down at his victorious Canadian dog, he said: “She does this quite a lot but not at quite this magnitude.” Asked what she had done especially well, he said, “She just never let me down. She didn’t make any mistakes.”

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Miss P, a 15-inch beagle, was best in show, the top honor at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.CreditCreditMike Segar/Reuters

Victory would appear to be sweeter for having survived Merriam’s judging routine. First he walked alongside the seven dogs, stopping at each one; then he implored them to trot, one after another, around the ring. In the next phase, he examined them, one by one, leaning down to the bigger ones, and assessing the smaller ones on a table. After checking each of them out, he told some, “Well done” and others, “That’s good,” and then told them to trot up and down a straight path along the carpet. No dog or handler could possiblly discern from his words or actions the direction he was headed in.

But one thing was certain: Every time he focused on Swagger, the crowd erupted, shouting his name. The same never happened for Miss P or, for that matter, any of the other dogs.

With the clock ticking toward 11 p.m., Merriam was still undecided. He walked past them again and again, looking, seeking help in his decision; the only help he got, over and over, were the cheers for Swagger. He backed away, took one last look at the seven dogs, and pivoted toward the judges’ table, where he recorded his decision. He returned, but was still not ready to announce the winner. He made a little speech, a rather unusual interlude, extolling the Westminster club as a “bulwark and pillar in the sport of purebred dogs” and offering tribute to the owners, handler and breeders of the seven finalists.

Finally — finally — came a choice. But it wasn’t for Best in Show. Not yet. First, came the second-place winner, Charlie.

And then, he finally chose Miss P, who quickly found herself at the center of a mid-floor celebration, navigating her way through a bunch of dangling ribbons.

Miss P, who is retiring to motherhood, did not exhibit the palpable charm of Uno, who howled at strategic points when he was judged at Westminster. Miss P is adorable, of course, but lacks the almost overwhelming charisma of her more famous relative, who became the most famous of all Westminster Best in Show winners. She has not met Uno, who lives in retirement in Austin, Tex., and will soon turn 10.

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A Dalmatian named Derry and his owner, Ann Smith, were among those who gathered for the 139th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York on Monday.

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Caroline Dowell, Uno’s owner, said she was delighted by Miss P’s victory.

She said that Uno was not watching the show and insisted that he was still in such good shape that “you can put him in the ring and he’d win tonight.”

Alexander declined to describe Miss P’s victory as an upset (she has a career 19 best in shows; Matisse has 238) but had only praise for his rival handlers. “They’re all masters of their job,” he said.

David Frei, the analyst for the USA Network broadcast of the show, said: “It was a great lineup. There were 500 best in shows out there, and she had 19 of them. It’s not an upset.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: A Regal Beagle Seizes the Spotlight. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe